There is obvious anxiety and
palpable apprehension in Osun State, as Federal Government deducted the sum of
N2.01bn from the last allocation accruing to the state to service external debt
and other contractual obligations.
According to a report from the Federation
Account Allocation Committee, which was prepared by the Office of the
Accountant-General of the Federation, the aggregate deductions from all states
for the month of September was N35.51bn.
It added that while Lagos State
tops the list of states with the highest deductions of N3.23bn, Osun came
second with N2.01bn.
It is against this backdrop that
the Chairman, Commissioners of Finance Forum of the Federation Account
Allocation Committee, Mr David Olofu, in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, called
for concerted efforts by all critical stakeholders to work towards boosting the
revenue base of the nation.
He specifically implored revenue
generating agencies to do more in opening more frontiers for generating
revenues into the federation account, as the Minister of State, Budget and
National Planning, Mr. Clem Agba challenged Commissioners of Budget and
Economic Planning in all the states to be innovative and proactive.
Agba, who gave the charge
recently at the meeting of the forum of Commissioners of Budget and Economic
Planning, emphasized the urgent need for them to devise alternatives means of
generating revenues for their states to complement allocations from the
Federation account and for the purpose of appreciable economic development.
However, all efforts to get
reactions from the duo of Commissioner for Finance in Osun , Prince Bola
Oyebamiji, as well as his counterpart from the Ministry of Budget and Economic
Planning, Professor Olalekan Yinusa, proved abortive, as the two individuals refused
to answer several phone calls put through to them by our Correspondent, neither
did they respond to text messages.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Osun
Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Gbite Ademikanra through a text message informed
our Correspondent of efforts putting in place to jack up Internally generated
revenues in the state, saying the administration of Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola,
through the agency has ”fantastically and creatively worked to boost the
state’s IGR without placing unnecessary burden on the people of the state”.
Ademikanra explained that the IGR
of the state has tremendously improved by almost 100 percent.
He said: ” As at June 30th, 2019,
the state had generated N10.2bn, indicating an average of 1.7bn of IGR monthly,
as against N10.4bn for the whole of 2018, with average of N860m per month”.
A civil society organisation,
Advocacy for Liberty and Civil Responsibility has carpeted the All Progressives
Congress, APC, and the last administration in the state for what it termed
‘reckless spending and lack of fiscal consciousness’.
The National Coordinator of the
group, Comrade Shola Igbalajobi further berated the incumbent Minister for
Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, who was the former governor in Osun State of
throwing the state into serious debt without a convincing justification.
Igbalajobi argued that there is
neither record of logical expenditure, nor the level of infrastructural
development in the state to justify ‘heavy debt’ hanging on the neck of the
state .
”I think the state is in serious
mess by these deductions, it is a clear manifestation of the huge debt incurred
by the last administration of Ogbeni Aregbesola, as a result of reckless
spending and lack of financial savvy.
”I wonder how the state will
survive in the face of this reduction, considering the meager allocation
accruing to it from the Federation account.
‘It is indeed very unfortunate
that the state is having sleeping State House of Assembly with docile and timid
leadership that do not even know how to bark let alone going ahead to bite,
otherwise, the parliament would have called Aregbesola for questioning, how
could he have incurred so much debt with little or nothing to show for it.
‘Also, the incumbent Governor, Mr
Adegboyega Oyetola lacks requisite moral standing to initiate any probe, having
be a determining factor in the last administration” he resorted.
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